Kit Siang accepts polls results, but questions 30 seats affecting BN’s legitimacy

Lim was unaware that Anwar had chosen not to accept the results. - File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 — DAP’s Lim Kit Siang today said he accepted last Sunday’s polls result where Barisan Nasional (BN) won the contest to be the federal government, saying he was only questioning 30 federal seats which could affect the coalition’s legitimacy.

“By and large, I accept the elections result, but 30 seats - the electoral fraud, electoral abuse, electoral irregularities - if these are proved, then they have to be corrected.

“And if they are corrected and Najib loses these 30 seats, he doesn’t have majority to be prime minister,” the DAP advisor said at a press conference at the party’s headquarter.

Yesterday, Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim similarly noted that the results in some 30 federal constituencies were in doubt, thus affecting the legitimacy of the BN government that was formed with just 133 seats, 21 seats more than the 112 seats required to win a simple majority.

Anwar, who leads the federal opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR), had taken a stronger approach yesterday by refusing to recognise the polls result, having highlighted the Election Commission (EC)’s failure to implement polls watchdog Bersih’s eight demands for a free and fair election.

“In fact, the EC could not even implement a simple use of indelible ink and the chairman fumbled miserably to provide a logical explanation for the failure,” said Anwar.

“It is therefore a dictate of our conscience to reject the election result until it is rectified and a reasonable justification is provided by the EC,” he said yesterday.

Bersih has similarly refused to recognise the BN government until it verified reports of possible electoral.

But Lim today appeared to be unaware that Anwar had chosen not to accept the results.

More to come